Hirschlanden transmitter, Radio transmitter facility in Ditzingen, Germany.
Hirschlanden transmitter is a radio facility located south of Ditzingen-Hirschlanden in Baden-Württemberg, featuring a 40-meter steel lattice mast with a square cross-section. The installation was equipped to broadcast on multiple frequencies for different audiences.
Built in 1963 by the Stuttgart postal authority, the facility originally transmitted Armed Forces Network programming for the American military community. Over the following decades, the transmitter underwent several upgrades to support additional radio frequencies.
The mast carried AFN programming on 1143 kHz until 7 March 2014, when the broadcast ended at 14:45. From 16 January 2002 to 4 April 2003 the same mast also aired the pop station Megaradio on 738 kHz, and from 15 August 2005 Truckradio used that frequency until the service stopped in 2008.
The site lies about two kilometres south of the Hirschlanden district of Ditzingen, in open country at 48°49'47" N, 9°02'15" E. The mast was dismantled on 15 September 2015 and the transmitter building in mid-December 2015, so nothing of the installation remains to be seen; the spot can be crossed on foot or by bike but holds no visitor facilities.
In 2001, a horizontal piece was added to the top of the mast that functioned as a roof capacitance to improve transmission efficiency. This technical solution was a clever modification that optimized the transmitter's performance.
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